noise in rearend

[lspencer001]

I have a 74 D4 golf cart. my problem is that when the cart gets up to full speed you can hear a noise in the rearend. it sounds like it is grinding or something. I checked the oil and it was half full so I put more in. the noise has quieted down but you can still hear it. you can really hear it when you are driving on pavment.

[Michael Eddie]

I never worked on that year Harley, but i have heard about people having similar trouble when the motor mounts wear completely out, and the drive clutches start to rub against one another.

[dougmcp]

Without being there, it's difficult to pinpoint an area to look.

It could be anything from a bad axle bearing to dragging brakes.
It could even be a motor flange connection or something in the clutch causing the noise.
The rear axle uses 90w gear oil, have you changed it or just added?
Have you put the cart on jackstands and run it to try to find the noise?

If you are serious about maintaining and/or restoring this cart, for less than $40 you can buy the factory service manual from here:

http://www.vintagegolfcartparts.com/cgi-bin/ccp5/cp-app.cgi?usr=50X380831&rnd=6830243&rrc=N&cip=67.182.184.56&pg=prod&ref=HD_FctryServManual5&cat=harley_davidson_manuals

[lspencer001]

I bought a repair manual off of ebay. I did not drain the oil as I could not find a drain plug and that I did not know how to with out a drain plug. I put the cart up on jack stands and added more gear oil so that I could make sure that it was full. I did not think of running the motor at the time that it was on on the jack stands.

[ifis3]

I'll try changing the gear lube